Month: May 2010

We say “Greg Raymer”; you say “nice bloke, very humble, good poker mind, could do with laying off the pies but overall a diamond geezer.” Well, everyone has a breaking point and Raymer apparently reached his in the opening flight of the EPT Monte Carlo grand final.

“It was the first time in my 18-year career that I’ve done something like this,” Raymer said. “It was stupid and unnecessary, but he kept annoying me.” A young Ukranian player at the table had spent hours hassling Raymer; criticising his play and generally being an unwelcome presence.

After Raymer won a pot from the player in question the abuse became worse and Raymer was heard to snap: “stop, or I will bash your head in.” He received a one orbit penalty for his outburst. “We both apologised and that was that. These things happen, but it wasn’t a big deal,” Raymer said after the event.

The River, Winstar World Casino’s popular Poker Tournament, will be “a shorter campaign” this year.

Winstar World Casino recently announced changes to its annual $3 million guaranteed poker tournament “The River.” The series, which will run from August 22 –September 6, “will be a shorter campaign,” according to Card Room Manager Jay Wiles. In addition the event “will include a series of hold’em and Omaha events. Also, players will be allowed to play multiple opening round days for the main event.”

According to the Windstar annoucnment the changes to “The River” — now in its fourth year — were made in accordance with players’ desires. The official spokesperson for poker at Winstar is poker pro Greg Raymer, who will be participating in the series.

German pro Simon Münz is leading the field at the end of Day 1a of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Münz has 175,200 and is closely followed by Swedish veteran Chris Bjorin with 171,100. American PokerStars player David Paredes who came fifth at the NAPT Venetian event is currently in fourth place with 144,600. Also among the chip leaders is Austrian Johannes Steindl with 141,300. Steindl is a long-standing member of Team PokerStars Pro Germany but his first EPT cash was only a few weeks ago when he came 13th at EPT Snowfest; he mainly plays high stakes online cash games.

A clutch of other Team PokerStars Pros also survived Day 1a including Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Florian Langmann and Martin Hruby plus PokerStars Team Online members Grayson Physioc, Jorge Arias and Luca Moschitta.

A total of 351 players competed on Day 1a of the €10,600 Main Event including Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Patrik Antonius, Roland de Wolfe, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Erik Seidel. Amanda Cesare, who is sponsored by PokerStars after winning the Australian “Poker Star” TV show, also made it through to Day 2 with 19,400.

Poker Expert Chris Navarro is in Awe of the Pro Poker star’s game – and admit he’ll never reach such heights.

“I have trained more than a dozen pros, most of whom don’t want this known for obvious reasons.” said Navarro. “One of the things I’ve found in teaching at the WSOP Academy with Greg Raymer and Annie Duke is that their level of play is several orders of magnitude higher than I will ever achieve. Anyone who has attended one of these camps will tell you the pros think and analyze at a level that’s truly superb.

“I don’t have that skill; I don’t have the ability to do the calculations in my head, etc. I know my weaknesses. So on that reason alone I wouldn’t do it. I have played with Jennifer Tilly, Sam Simon and others, and have done OK, but OK is not good enough for me when money is involved. Besides, my attention span for almost anything is about a half hour, so that’s why you don’t see me out there.”